THE Pope has accepted the early resignation of a Los Angeles bishop who recently acknowledged being the father of two teenagers.

IN the 2004 John Jay report, a report about the rape of children by clergy, was commissioned by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

GARDAÍ are preparing to launch an investigation into the alleged abuse and rape of children in Africa by Irish missionary priests.

Researchers commissioned by US Roman Catholic bishops to analyse the pattern of clergy sex abuse over decades have concluded that homosexuality, celibacy and an all-male priesthood did not cause the scandal.

THE number of new child sex abuse allegations against Roman Catholic clergy in the US and Church payouts for clerical sex abuse cases fell sharply last year, a report commissioned by US bishops said Tuesday.

Pope Benedict XVI told US bishops that the scourge of clergy sex abuse had sometimes been “very badly handled”.

Pope Benedict XVI said he was “deeply ashamed” of the clergy sex abuse scandal that has rocked the American church.

Scientists in California say they have produced embryos that are clones of two men, a potential step towards developing scientifically valuable stem cells.

A Catholic diocese in the US has agreed to pay at least $48m (€37m) to people molested by priests, a federal mediator announced.

A woman has claimed she was sexually abused more than 40 years ago by the president of the US Conference of Catholic bishops.

Rachel Zoll, Vatican City

America’s top bishop said the days of sheltering sex abusers in the Roman Catholic priesthood were “history”, following reports showing the extent of assaults on children over the last half-century and saying church leaders bore much of the blame.

It may be subtitled, and it may be staggeringly gory, yet Christians across the United States also expect that seeing Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ will be a profoundly moving experience.

JEWS and Christians who fear Mel Gibson’s epic on the crucifixion of Jesus will fuel anti-Semitism are planning lecture series and other programmes to try to mute the film’s impact.

MORE than 160 priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee have signed a letter arguing that married men should be allowed to enter the priesthood.

The report alleging Catholic bishops were ordered to cover up sexual abuse under pain of excommunication questions the assertions of the Church on its attitude to this problem.

THE Vatican yesterday gave its approval to the revised US bishops’ policy to combat sex abuse in the clergy, declaring the need to restore the image of the priesthood in a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church.

CATHOLIC activists have compiled an internet database listing at least 600 American priests who have faced public accusations of child sex abuse since 1996.

The Vatican has rejected parts of the US church’s new sex abuse policy and cautioned American bishops from going ahead with them, sources said today.

Some advocates for sex abuse victims have said Pope John Paul II’s first public comments in Canada on priests who molest children sent the wrong message: that the Roman Catholic Church cares more about clergy than those who were abused.

Leaders from America’s scandal-scarred Roman Catholic Church will hear out Pope John Paul II and present their own proposals today during an unprecedented discussion on public anger over priestly sexual abuse.

American cardinals arrived in Rome today for meetings with the Pope, saying they will take whatever steps are needed to assure Catholics that a paedophile priests scandal is under control.

The Pope has summoned American cardinals to the Vatican for an extraordinary meeting to talk about sex scandals that are hitting the Catholic church in the US on an almost daily basis.